Nicolas Sarkozy defeated in local elections

Nicolas Sarkozy's party has suffered defeat in local elections in France which
saw the opposition Socialists come top and the far-Right National Front make
historic inroads a year before the presidential ballot.

Nicolas Sarkozy stands to be knocked out of the first round of presidential elections, a fresh poll yesterday suggestedPhoto: EPA

By Henry Samuel in Paris

7:03PM BST 28 Mar 2011

The results were seen as a sign of the failure of Mr Sarkozy's strategy of drawing far-Right voters away from the National Front (FN) with a tough line on Islam, security and immigration.

The Socialists were the big winner in the second round of cantonal elections in the country's 100 departments, taking almost 36 per cent of the vote.

Mr Sarkozy's UMP party won just over 20 per cent, while the National Front, under its new leader Marine Le Pen, took almost 12 per cent and gained more than 300,000 voters between the two rounds.

The FN's apparently low number of seats – it only won in two cantons – belied the fact it had attracted more than 40 per cent of the vote in some of the 402 cantons where it was present in round two.

A historically low voter turnout – less than 46 per cent – led the Le Monde newspaper to declare France a "profoundly sick democracy".

The poor UMP showing led some analysts to predict the party could implode should a centrist faction break away from the group founded by Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy's predecessor.

Internal rifts surfaced yesterday when Francois Baroin, the government spokesman, called for an end to a divisive debate – backed by Mr Sarkozy – on France's secular identity and the role of Islam in society.

The President immediately let it be known the April 5 debate would go ahead, and Mr Baroin was ordered to back down.

Jean-Francois Cope, the head of the UMP, insisted that the party had "got the message (of) concern and questioning from many of our fellow citizens."

Sunday's elections – the last before next Spring's presidential elections – were seen as the unofficial starting gun for presidential campaigning.

Martine Aubry, the Socialist party leader, said she would outline some of the party's manifesto plans this week. The Left is due to hold primaries in June, with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the current head of the International Monetary Fund, seen as favourite should he run.

Mr Sarkozy, meanwhile stands to be knocked out of the first round of presidential elections, a fresh poll yesterday suggested, leading to a second round run-off between a Left-wing candidate and Miss Le Pen.

A separate poll found that a majority of French for the first time consider the FN to be a party "like the others".

"People will have to reckon with the FN coming in first place in the forthcoming elections, presidential and legislative," Miss Le Pen said.